We took ourselves off to another remote little valley today for a hike at cooler altitudes. You can see the entrance to the high valley from our balcony, and after half an hour of driving, we were winding our way up some mega switch backs. Once you turn into the valley the road becomes almost single track and traverses along the side of a terrific gorge. It must have been hundreds of metres to the bottom, which was well out of sight. I stayed focused on the road!

We parked up near the refuge at the road head and headed up a small path towards the Col de la Coulette.

Once we reached the higher meadows above the tree line, we decided to have lunch and a snooze under the shade of a solitary tree. As we were there, a Chamoix and a baby, walked over to the pass we’d just crossed. If you zoom in a lot below, you can just make them out. We watched them for ages through the binoculars which was really nice.

The upper meadows were carpeted with Edelweiss and plenty of other colours.

In the end, we decided to leave the upper col for another day – maybe joining the knife edge ridge as well to make a super circuit?.. on the path down we crossed a lot of avalanche and landslide debris that had wiped out the trail.

Back in the valley, we tried to stop off at the Burger Bar, but a sign in the window said they had no chef today! Somewhat disappointed, we crossed the road and went into the bio supermarket. To make up for the burger disappointment, on walking through the doors, the owner greeted us with a smile and explained that it was the store’s 4th birthday and that we should have a glass of wine with him and his friends. We said ‘Merci’ as we were handed a delightfully cold cup of Rose, while a small band played some folk songs!

And as if that wasn’t enough, there was complimentary food to try as well! A lovely cool finish to a hot hike!